TRADE BANS AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION THE CASE OF AFRICAN ELEPHANT IVORY.pdf - 2 views
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The second main issue is the effect of a trade ban on ivory harvest. Illegal ivory constituted 80% of all ivory traded prior to the CITES ban (ITRG, 1989). It is, therefore, important to understand the determinants of poaching (Milner-Gulland & Leader-Williams, 1992), and especially how poaching is influenced by international trade. A simple model is presented below to demonstrate the interaction between legal and illegal supplies in the international ivory market. The model highlights some unintended side effects of the trade ban, which tend to be neglected in the conservation debate.2
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vuyormanzini on 26 Apr 23These statistics suggest that illegal ivory trade or poaching was more profitable when compared to legal trade. The reason being is that legal ivory trade has limits since it's conducted by the state or government, where as illegal trade is filled with unlimited distribution.
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Thus, the main effects of a trade ban on legal and illegal markets are as follows. One, the moral impact of a trade ban (and associated attention surrounding the plight of the African elephant) is to reduce demand, which leads to lower poaching offtake. The second effect is the withdrawal of official stocks (from culling operations etc) from the markets. This draws up the black market price of ivory and induces more poaching. Third, if a trade ban facilitates additional interceptions of smuggled ivory, this has an ambiguous effect on poaching incentives. Interceptions reduce smugglers' expected price and, hence, the price they are willing to pay poachers for ivory, reducing poaching. However, under a trade ban confiscations cannot be marketed.
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The conclusion is neither that markets for products from threatened natural resources should be liberalised indiscriminately nor that strict trade bans should form the core of conservation efforts. Rather, it should be investigated how legal marketing channels for official stocks can be set up and safeguarded, as in the current system with limited ivory export quotas from a group of Southern African range states. Due attention should be paid to efforts aimed at developing secure techmques to distinguish legal from illegal supplies, i.e. through a product marking system.